The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has slapped BNK Banking Corporation with a $247,500 fine for failing to meet its data reporting requirements to the APRA.
In a statement, the prudential regulator said BNK was 32 days late in filing statistical reports for the month ending Feb. 23 under the Economic and Financial Statistics program. This failure to report data by required deadlines was in breach of the requirements of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (FSCODA).
Therese McCarthy Hockey, APRA member, said that by issuing the fine, APRA wanted to make clear the importance of submitting data on time to the industry.
“We expect all entities to be compliant with our reporting standards to ensure APRA always has the most up-to date information on the industries we regulate,” Hockey said. “Access to accurate and timely data is critical for APRA to effectively monitor the safety and stability of Australia’s banking, insurance, and superannuation systems.”
Despite BNK’s breach, the APRA member said it was able to provide sufficient reporting to allow the regulator to ensure that the lender continued to remain prudentially sound over the period.
BNK has until Aug. 1 to pay the fine.
In a trading update for Q3 FY23, the ASX-listed banking group reported growing its lending book by 50% to $1.3 billion year-on-year, while its total deposits ballooned by a record 65% to $1.37 billion.
The quarter also saw the group exceeding its $100 million of high-margin lending in FY23 with the addition of a $150 million portfolio of higher margin residential mortgages bought from Goldman Sachs in March.
A further $42 million in specialist warehouse loans had also been settled by the group during the quarter through BNK’s alliance with Goldman Sachs.
With a direct loan-to-deposit ratio of 79%, BNK had demonstrated its continued ability to raise deposits to fund its strategic growth. A capital adequacy ratio of 23.1% at the end of March, meanwhile, indicated that the group remained well capitalised.
Just this April, BNK forged a “deeper alliance” with Firstmac, when the latter expanded its stake in the business to 19.9%.